Six senior officials involved in the Canadile concession in the controversial Marange mining area of eastern Zimbabwe appeared in court Monday on charges of fraudulently acquiring the mining operation.

Five of the men are from the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), while the other man is from Core Mining. They were remanded in custody and their hearing is due to continue on Tuesday, The Herald reported.

Canadile Investments is a joint venture between the ZMDC subsidiary Marange Resources and Core Mining.

The officials are: ZMDC chief executive Dominic Mubaiwa, company secretary Tichaona Muhonde, chairperson Gloria Mawarire, and board members Ashton Ndlovu and Mark Tsomondo. Canadile Miners local representative Lovemore Kurotwi was also arrested.

They are charged with leading the government to believe that they possessed enough money to operate a concession at Marange, saying that South Africa-based company, BSGR, was interested in investing $2 billion in Zimbabwe.

The ZMDC has reportedly taken over operations at the concession, and Mines minister Obert Mpofu has said that the government is not looking for new investors in the Canadile concession.

Canadile is one of two companies, along with Mbada Mining, mining for diamonds at Marange since November 2009. Another company, Anjin Limited, from China is due to start operations soon.

News of the charges against the six men came to light as the Kimberley Process (KP) annual plenary meeting in Jerusalem was discussing whether it should certify diamonds from Marange as being in compliance with minimum KP standards. The KP was unable to reach a decision and talks are continuing.

Credit is given to AWDC by DiamondTopics.com News